University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Interacting stressors matter: Diet quality and virus infection in honeybee health

Dolezal, Adam G.; Carrillo-Tripp, Jimena; Judd, Timothy M.; Miller, W. Allen; Bonning, Bryony C.; Toth, Amy L.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/105443

Description

Title
Interacting stressors matter: Diet quality and virus infection in honeybee health
Author(s)
  • Dolezal, Adam G.
  • Carrillo-Tripp, Jimena
  • Judd, Timothy M.
  • Miller, W. Allen
  • Bonning, Bryony C.
  • Toth, Amy L.
Issue Date
2019-02-06
Keyword(s)
  • Honey bee
  • Nutrition
  • Israeli acute paralysis virus
  • Micronutrients
Abstract
Honeybee population declines have been linked to multiple stressors, including reduced diet diversity and increased exposure to understudied viral pathogens. Despite interest in these factors, few experimental studies have explored the interaction between diet diversity and viral infection in honeybees. Here, we used a mixture of laboratory cage and small semi-field nucleus hive experiments to determine how these factors interact. In laboratory experiments, we found that high-quality diets (polyfloral pollen and high-quality single-source pollen) have the potential to reduce mortality in the face of infection with Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV). There was a significant interaction between diet and virus infection on mortality, even in the presence of high virus titres, suggesting that good diets can help bees tolerate virus infection. Further, we found that extreme stress in the form of pollen starvation in conjunction with IAPV infection increase exiting behaviour from small experimental hives. Finally, we showed that higher-quality pollen diets have significantly higher iron and calcium content, suggesting micronutrient deficiencies could be an under-explored area of bee nutrition.
Publisher
Royal Society
Series/Report Name or Number
Royal Society Open Science; vol. 6, no. 2, 2019
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105443
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.181803
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2019 Adam G. Dolezal, Jimena Carrillo-Tripp, Timothy M. Judd, W. Allen Miller, Bryony C. Bonning and Amy L. Toth

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